Itching to leave campus for a bit to get some fresh non-Cambridge air? Scratch that, ready to leave campus for good? (well, at least until next semester.) If you said yes to either question, you’re in luck. We’re here to walk you through the ideal times to ditch campus, whether it’s for a much-needed break side quest, or to simply run right back to your childhood bed for the best non-twin XL rest of your life.

Harvard Sports Games

Obviously, the most socially acceptable time to leave for a weekend is to go to the Harvard-Yale game. Unfortunately, you can only use this hack once every 2 years, but there are so many other games to watch! There’ll always be a Harvard sports game at some campus, just check the teams you’d have any interest in following, and check the campuses you’d be really interested in visiting. If your friends are tracking your location, confused why you’re all the way in New Jersey, you’ll seem so cool when you tell them, “Yeah, I’m a fan of women’s volleyball now.” It’s really a win-win, no matter which way you put it.

Concert: Go Get Lit

You might not have to go far for this at all, but going to a concert is one of the most disconnected you’ll ever feel from campus—trust me. Boston’s a big city with frankly too many artists and plenty of genres, so you could probably go to a concert every weekend if you wanted to. Start working on discovering your next niche artist to obsess over! Sometimes you just need your ears absolutely blasted off with sound—it truly is a great distraction from all the problems in the Harvard world. You know a weekend is fun when it takes 5 minutes to tap through all the videos you posted to your story—even if some people might hate you for it though…They’re still fans :)

Hiking Trip

Everyone does it. Let’s be real. Everyone reading this article knows at least one person who’s dipped to New Hampshire on a random Saturday to climb a mountain. Why don’t you join them? Go reconnect with the wilderness and touch some grass, there’s no fresher air out there. There are a lot of really good places to hike on the East Coast, and a bonus, you can go camping! Camping means a night in a cold, hard sleeping bag instead of a cold, hard twin XL mattress, so it really shouldn’t be that bad. You might get mauled by a bear, but that certainly isn’t as bad as your Stat 110 midterm score. Yikes.

Yet Another City

Alright, enough touching grass. Maybe you’re in the mood to touch some streets and concrete completely unfamiliar to you. Why not visit another sprawling metropolis on the East Coast? Don’t bother with the campuses there—go enjoy the city's nightlife instead. There’s Providence, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, but if you really want your friends to have major FOMO, head on over to Times Square. A perfectly curated Instagram story with “Empire State of Mind” playing in the background is the crème de la crème. Let this serve as your sign to be the influencer you want to be, and take an overpriced Amtrak to the Big Apple for the weekend. It’s like Boston, but BIGGER.

Humanities Major

Is a weekend trip not enough for you? Do you genuinely want to just leave the campus as soon as you can? The simple solution is a complete concentration change, and this isn’t even ragebait, because you all know it’s true. Finals require you to be on campus, papers do not. That’s not always the case, but you can tailor your schedule in a way that there are no finals, so you can go back home immediately and write all your papers from there. Imagine not having to be there at all during finals week! Reading week? More like leaving week! Now, if you want to SKIP a final, things get more complicated…that’s for a different article, though. This article is about fair ways to leave.

No, actually, I want to stay

Alright, fine, you don’t HAVE to leave campus right away. Especially during reading period and finals week, there are a lot of cool things to do around campus that are NOT finals. Also, it gives you more time to hang out with your friends, enjoy Cambridge in all of its spring glory, and plan out how you’re going to fit all of your new thrift finds in your luggage. Sometimes, staying longer is exactly what you need, and that’s completely valid. It can be more stress-relieving and also more enjoyable to wait until the absolute last day to leave. Sometimes, you really want to leave this place, but other times, this campus is a really nice place to be, and it’s hard to leave it despite its flaws. Just think and make the best decision for yourself.

Is it best for you to stay, or to go this time around?